Thames Television (based on Brad Jones' post-1993 vision)
Thames Television (now part of the non-franchise ITV London region) was the ITV franchise holder for London and the surrounding counties from 9.25am every Monday to 5.15pm every Friday. The company is now managed with London Weekend Television as a single entity (ITV London), but the two companies are still separately licensed. The station is owned and operated by ITV plc under the licensee of ITV Broadcasting Limited. Thames has been branded on air as 'ITV1' since 28 October 2002, and as 'ITV' since 14 January 2013. Thames legally exists as Thames Television Ltd. This company is, along with most other regional companies owned by ITV plc, listed on www.companieshouse.gov.uk as a "Dormant company". Despite the Thames' name relation to its region, its on-screen identity has been completely removed (along with those of HTV, LWT and GMTV). Other regions have kept their original company name as a region name and in their local news name. Launch and the 1970's Formation From launch on 22 September 1955 to July 1968, the Independent Television Authority (ITA) contract to provide programming on the ITV network for London on weekdays had been operated by Associated-Rediffusion. Geographical and structural changes in the network created by the ITA's 1967 invitation for applicants for new franchise contracts for the right to broadcast on ITV (initially intended to run from 1968 to 1974) meant that ABC Weekend Television (ABC) lost both their area franchises, serving the Midlands and the North at weekends, as these areas were to become seven-day operations. Consequently, ABC applied for both the Midlands seven-day operation and the contract to serve London at the weekend, preferring the latter. It was widely expected that the company would be awarded the weekend franchise. After an impressive application, it was awarded to what became London Weekend Television in a consortium led by David Frost and others. This led to a serious problem for the ITA as ABC was a popular station, whose productions earned vital foreign currency. Equally station management and presentation style were well-admired and it could have been controversial to dismiss that as a result of purely administrative changes. It was considered difficult for ABC to win the Midlands seven-day contract as the existing five-days contractor ATV had also applied and was a large earner of overseas revenue, having won the Queen's Award for Export in 1966. Rediffusion had believed that their contract renewal was a 'formality' and their application reflected this complacency: the company had treated the ITA high-handedly in interviews.2 In the early days of ITV, the company had worked hard to keep the network on-air during financial crises that threatened the collapse of other companies, particularly Granada Television.3 It was reported that Rediffusion's chairman Sir John Spencer Wills felt the ITA owed his company a 'debt of gratitude' for this, a comment which particularly annoyed the Authority. During the interview process several members of Rediffusion management also appeared in interviews for applicants for other regions, principally the Consortium of which David Frost was a member, as well as the interview for Rediffusion, leading the ITA to question the loyalty at the company.4 In programming, Rediffusion was originally considered stuffy but in the previous contract round of 1964, it had re-invented itself, dropping the name 'Associated-Rediffusion' in favour of the more swinging 'Rediffusion London', to reflect the cultural changes of the time, and output altered accordingly. The outcome proposed by the ITA was a "shotgun marriage" between ABC and Rediffusion, the resultant company being awarded the contract to serve London on weekdays. Control of the new company would be given to ABC, a move unpopular with Rediffusion.2 Questioning the ITA's decision Rediffusion attempted to slow down the merger: Only the threat of giving the licence solely to ABC made it relent. To assist Rediffusion financially the ITA insisted that the new company have two sets of shares, voting shares which would allow ABC to have control (with 51%) and 'B' shares which were to be split equally between the two, thus sharing profits fairly. The structure of the new company was also a problem. A merger between the two existing contract holders Associated British Cinemas (Television) Limited and Rediffusion Television Limited was impossible due to internal politics as was a merger between their respective parent companies Associated British Picture Corporation and British Electric Traction. The answer was a new holding company, Thames Television (Holdings) Ltd.5 (ABC's parent, the Associated British Picture Corporation was taken over by EMI in 1969, from 1979 becoming part of Thorn EMI.) The ITA ordered ABC's Managing Director Howard Thomas to be appointed in a similar capacity at the new station. ABC had majority control of the new company and the make-up of its board predominantly (and eventually fully) came from ABC. The use of ABC's old studios at Teddington meant the workforce was predominantly ex-ABC (although those at Kingsway were ex-Rediffusion). After some discussion as to the name of the new company – some directors favoured 'ABC London', while others suggested 'Tower Television' to reflect the Post Office Tower and the Tower of London – it was named Thames Television, after the River Thames. This name had been previously considered and rejected by London Weekend Television.6 On 30 July 1968, Thames began broadcasting to London, from the start of broadcasting on Monday until its handover to London Weekend Television at 19:00 GMT on Friday. (From 1982, the handover time was 17:15 GMT). The opening week was disrupted by sporadic strike action;7 the following week, the action had spread to all of ITV8 and resulted in the creation of a management-run ITV Emergency National Service for some two weeks. Studios The former ABC studios at Teddington became Thames main production base. Thames' corporate base moved to their newly constructed studios and base at Thames Television House on Euston Road in 1970, when they relinquished Television House, Rediffusion's former London headquarters. The Teddington studios were highly desirable, as they had participated in colour experiments and were already partially converted by the time of the franchise change, and as such had been sought after by both Thames and LWT.9 When Thames was formed, the new company acquired numerous other properties of the former franchise holders, the rest were sold or disposed of. Rediffusion's main studio complex at Wembley5 were sold to London Weekend Television by order of the ITA,9 ABC's Midlands base in Aston, Birmingham (see Alpha Television), was co-owned with ATV, which now bought ABC's share. Their northern base in Didsbury, Manchester was used by Yorkshire Television prior to their Kirkstall Road studios in Leeds being completed, while a sales office in central Manchester was sold. Early programmes The station continued formats inherited from its predecessors. These included the variety show Opportunity Knocks, Armchair Theatre, the last series of The Avengers and the detective thrillers Callan and Public Eye, all inherited from ABC. The comedy Do Not Adjust Your Set though, originated with Rediffusion, and if nominally a children's show, was one of the forerunners of Monty Python's Flying Circus. More conventional sitcoms, all of which began in Thames early years, included Father, Dear Father (1968–73), the Sid James vehicle Bless This House (1971–76), and Love Thy Neighbour (1972-76), with a controversial take on race relations. Another sitcom, Man About the House (1973–76), was successful enough for two spin-offs, George and Mildred (1976–80) and Robin's Nest (1977-81). The company took over the This Is Your Life format in 1969, several years after the BBC had dropped the show in 1964. Another BBC favourite was the star of The Benny Hill Show (1969–89), who was placed under contract. Hill spent the rest of his career with Thames. The Sooty Show, cancelled in 1967 by the BBC, now aired on Thames and began on the first day of transmission. It continued after Harry Corbett's retirement in 1975 with his son, Matthew Corbett, and lasted on Thames until late 1992. The company also produced the children's show Magpie, which began in 1968 and was intended as a rival for Blue Peter on BBC 1, and The Tomorrow People (1973–79), a science fiction series. For pre-school children there was Rainbow, which started in 1972 and ran for 20 years. The programme used animation and graphics created by Cosgrove Hall, a Thames subsidiary founded in 1972, which made animated series for children. A few hours after Rainbow, Afternoon Plus was transmitted. It begun after the IBA allowed non-schools broadcasting in this period of the day, and featured interview editions undertaken by such broadcasters as Mavis Nicholson, and a weekly consumers' programme. Of much greater prestige was The World at War (1973–74), a 26-part history of the Second World War using unseen footage and interviews, often of high-level participants. The series, narrated by Sir Laurence Olivier, was commissioned in 1969, took four years to produce, and cost a record £4m (approx £32m today). Meanwhile, Thames gained a reputation for drama with such series as Jenny, Lady Randolph Churchill (1974), with Lee Remick as the mother of Winston Churchill. It won an Emmy as the best series in its category, as Edward & Mrs. Simpson (1978), about the abdication crisis, did later. Other successful series in the genre from this period include Rock Follies (1976) and Armchair Thriller (1978-80). These programmes were made in the then standard 'hybrid' studio video/location film format, but the British industry was in the slow process of dropping the multi-camera studio format for drama, excepting soaps, to making the genre entirely on film. The Thames offshoot Euston Films was founded in 1971 to specialise in drama output made entirely on film, then still a rare practice. Euston made the police series The Sweeney (1975–78), Danger UXB (1979), and Minder (1979–94), plus the last appearance of Nigel Kneale's best known creation in Quatermass (1979). In this era, Euston also made single one-off dramas such as The Naked Civil Servant (1975). On 1 December 1976, the punk band the Sex Pistols were interviewed live on Thames' news magazine programme, Today. Members of the group uttered obscenities during their interview with Bill Grundy. Grundy, in his introduction, said they are "as drunk as I am", but later claimed his comment was a joke, and had allowed the bad language to illustrate the character of the individuals in the group. The interview filled two minutes at the end of the programme, but the production team feared trouble in the studio if they stopped the programme mid-air. Thames' telephone switchboard was jammed by complaining viewers. Responding to the incident, Thames said in a statement: "Because the programme was live, it was impossible to foresee the language that would be used."10 The press continued to be interested in the incident for several days. Grundy was suspended and Today ended soon afterwards; his career never recovered. Over time, Thames replaced Today with a more conventional news offering as seen on other ITV stations. Thames at Six was launched, later Thames News. In 1978. Thames secured a contract with Morecambe & Wise.11 The comedians had worked for the BBC since 1968 with major national success, but the decisive factor leading the duo to leave the Corporation was Thames' offer to feature them as main leads in a film made by the company's Euston Films subsidiary. The comedy duo's leading scriptwriter, Eddie Braben, did not initially move to ITV with them, and with Eric Morecambe's failing health, the new shows never gained the audiences or matched the esteem they had previously enjoyed. Industrial relations up to the end of 1979 Like most of ITV, Thames was beset by conflicts with trade unions, notably the Association of Cinematograph Television and Allied Technicians (ACTT). A two-week technicians strike in the summer of 1975, shut down the whole of ITV with the technicians being bought off with a 35% pay rise. Two years later in May 1977, another strike occurred when production assistants at Thames refused to operate new video equipment. Thames proceeded to sack all the technicians for breach of contract. The following month, both sides backed down over the issues, with all technicians returning to work. The worst strike to hit the network originated at Thames. Failure to reach agreement on pay increases and shift allowances in the 1979 pay round resulted in technicians switching off power to the transmission facilities at the Euston Road centre on 6 August. After management restored power, the technicians walked out. Within four days the whole of the ITV network was off-air after the ACTT asked members at other companies to walk out in claim for a 15% pay rise. The network was off the air for ten weeks.12 From 1980 to 1992 1980s programming Other Thames shows included This Week (known as TV Eye between 1979 and 1985), Rumpole of the Bailey, the game shows Strike It Lucky, Give Us a Clue and Name That Tune, and the drama Dodger, Bonzo and the Rest. Thames sitcoms during the 1980s and early 1990s included Never the Twain, After Henry, and Mr. Bean. The Mr. Bean pilot episode was first broadcast on ITV on 1 January 1990, and the eventual run lasted beyond Thames holding of its franchise. Less well-known is its adaptation of Andy Capp (1988), starring James Bolam. Two of its post-franchise sitcoms found more success when they transferred away from ITV – Men Behaving Badly, which moved to the BBC in 1994 and Is It Legal?, which moved to Channel 4 in 1997. Both were written by Simon Nye and co-produced by independent company Hartswood Films. A few years after The World at War, Thames broadcast Hollywood (1980), a 13 part documentary series about the era of the America silent cinema. This series, produced by Kevin Brownlow and David Gill, was followed by the company sponsoring Thames Silents, a project undertaken by Brownlow and Gill of the restoration and screenings (in a limited number of cinemas and on television) of major films from the silent era. The two men followed Hollywood with series dedicated to leading comics of the silent era, Unknown Chaplin (1983) and Buster Keaton: A Hard Act to Follow (1987). A programme on Harold Lloyd (The Third Genius) followed in 1989. Hollywood and the Chaplin series were narrated by the actor James Mason. Unusually for a commercial broadcaster, it also produced lavish versions of Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado and Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream Thames' subsidiary production company Euston Films continued to produce many of Thames' highest-profile drama contributions to ITV network programming to the end of its ITV franchies. These included Reilly, Ace of Spies (1983), Jack the Ripper (1988), Capital City (1989–1990), and Anglo-Saxon Attitudes (1992). The Bill (1984–2010) began as a one-hour series of separate stories, but for much of its run was a soap opera broadcast several times a week. Programming controversies In January 1985, the company made a deal with international distributors for US production company Lorimar to purchase the UK broadcasting rights for US drama Dallas, at that time transmitted on BBC1. This broke a gentlemen's agreement between the two sides not to poach each other's imported shows. Thames paid £55,000 a show compared to the £29,000 of the BBC. The deal brought condemnation from the BBC and from other ITV stations, who feared the BBC would poach their imports, pushing up prices.13 The BBC delayed transmission of the episodes of Dallas that they already had, planning to broadcast them at the same time Thames broadcast their new purchases. Ultimately, pressure from several ITV companies (especially Yorkshire Television) to the IBA, forced Thames to sell the series back to the BBC at a loss. Bryan Cowgill, the managing director of Thames left the company as he believed his position was untenable since the board were unwilling to support his plans to buy the series.14 In October, Thames paid the BBC, via the IBA, £300,000 in compensation to make up the short fall in additional cost for new episodes of Dallas.15 The most controversial programme Thames broadcast was the documentary "Death on the Rock", part of the current affairs This Week series.16 The programme questioned the authority of British troops who had shot dead suspected IRA members allegedly planning a terrorist attack on a British military ceremony in Gibraltar. The documentary was regarded almost as treason by many Conservative politicians, and The Sunday Times made claims about one of the witnesses interviewed which were later found to be libellous. The following year, in 1989, Thames ended the contract of Benny Hill, a stalwart at the station since 1969. It was believed that the comedian was dismissed because his shows were considered offensive, but in fact, Thames' decision was taken because of falling ratings. The show at its peak had 21 million viewers, while the last episode had nine million. Hill made only 58 hour-long episodes in the 20 years he worked for Thames with the result that, in the UK, the show was generally promoted as specials, but the programmes were re-edited as 30 minute episodes for overseas markets. Hill gained a following in the United States when this version was screened there. Industrial relations in the Thatcher era Through the early 1980s, Thames experienced a series of local disputes while management deliberately confronted contractual ‘rackets’, and pursued the introduction of new technologies based on operational requirements rather than precedent.17 For Thames’ management, this was a materialist operation with a clear dimension, and to weed out unscrupulous bargaining and working practices. In the summer of 1984 a major strike was called. This time, over Thames' management unilaterally issuing new rostering schedules (overtime payments for transmission staff), and the use of new cameras and editing equipment. There were no internal discussions of the potential savings that could be derived from new shift patterns, but there was a strong sense that union controls had to be removed before the company embarked on increasing its operations. The technicians walked out, but the station was off the air for just one day as management and administration staff took over their roles.18 On Monday 27 August, ATTC technicians walked out again over the new shift patterns;19 the strike ended on 3 September 1984, at 1:00 pm after the union agreed to rostering according to need, while the management dropped plans for ending six day working fortnights. Bryan Cowgill was quoted as saying: "The need for sensible change in the way we conduct our operations has been at the heart of this dispute. The outcome of a damaging and costly dispute has resulted in substantial progress towards a more realistic and effective way of working".20 Over the following four weeks, further discussions took place about implementing the plans while introducing new technologies. On Wednesday 17 October, another strike was instigated, as talks failed in agreement. The union warned against a management-run service, as it would be a recipe for total network disturbance and a massive loss of programmes, but Thames claimed that it would be justified due to the strike being unofficial.21 On Tuesday 23 October, a management-run service started operating; the company claimed the revised schedule was popular with the viewers.2223 The strike finally ended on 3 November 1984, after 62 film editors agreed to the new conditions, while the ACTT agreed as well to start negotiations about the introductions of new technology. Additional episodes of network productions were screened to help clear the backlog, since no outside programmes were broadcast. Thames said: "We are delighted in the outcome of the dispute which we believe is in the best interests of everyone who works at Thames".24 For the Thames board, the dispute represented a huge, but necessary, cost if the company was to expand its production operations profitably.1725 Profits at Thames, dropped from £14.1M 1983/84 to £8.75M 84/85, during the strike period, but were able to recover back to £14.6M 85/86 just before flotation on the stock market.26 During April 1988, after successfully introducing new technologies and employing more freelance staff, Thames announced the loss of 200 jobs from its permanent workforce, which followed similar action from other ITV companies in a bid to slim down their workforce and alter working practices for economic reasons.27 Thames made a further 297 employees redundant as part of their restructuring plan to reduce its staff to 1,500 in preparation for the 1991 ITV franchise round.2829 Area and ownership changes In 1982, The Independent Broadcasting Authority decided to change the franchise area, which resulted in the Bluebell Hill transmitter, its associated relays and the main relay at Tunbridge Wells being transferred between London and the new South and South-East of England, Television South franchise, in order to serve the new region better.30 In 1985, Carlton Communications had executed a failed take-over bid for Thames after Thorn EMI and British Electric Traction decided to sell its share of Thames. The deal was blocked by both Richard Dunn, Chief Executive of Thames, and by the IBA, who concluded 'the proposal would lead to a major change in the nature and characteristic of a viable ITV programme company'. Carlton's owner, Michael Green, claimed that the decision left him 'bewildered' and said: 'We are surprised at the IBA's decision. I'm absolutely certain it would not have been a major change to Thames. We have always suggested that we would make absolutely sure the company would continue to be what it is at this moment in time.' IBA stated they had nothing against Carlton owning part of an ITV company, but believed 'any' single ownership of an ITV company was undesirable.31 It has been said that Carlton Chief Executive Michael Green talked to the then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher on the matter, which in turn may have helped to shape the 1990 Parliamentary Act which replaced the IBA with the Independent Television Commission and the change in franchise allocation procedures. Thames finally floated on the stock market in July 1986, after being denied by the IBA in late 1982;32 the shares on offer were being sold by BET and Thorn EMI, who planned to reduce their share holding from 100% down to 28.8%.26 A few days afterwards speculation appeared that Carlton had attempted to buy a sizable amount of shares; Michael Green, chairman of Carlton, was quoted saying "I can't possibly comment" but a Thames spokesperson pointed out "It does seem quite likely, however, no one share holder can own more than 10% of our equity so it's difficult to see what they might have in mind".33 During 1989 reports appeared that talks were taking place with Carlton Communications about an agreed merger,34 which resulted in no action taking place. The flotation was not a great success, EMI and BET only managing to reduce their shares to 56.6%, with management acquiring much of the new stock. In March 1990, EMI and BET tried once again to sell off their shares in Thames, with Cartlon and CLT (Luxembourg based media company) both in the running.3536 However, by October talks had stalled, with EMI and BET still controlling Thames before heading into the 1991 franchise round.37 1992-2002 On the 16 October 1991, Thames mostly lost its ITV franchise to broadcast to London during weekdays from the beginning of January 1993 as a result of losing the silent auction used to renegotiate the new franchises.38 Thames bid £32.5 million while Carlton Television placed a bid of £43.2 million,39 and since both Thames and Carlton were deemed to have passed the quality threshold, Carlton had submitted the higher cash bid. Some commentators consequently speculated that Thames had fallen victim to a 'government vendetta', whilst others felt that the auction had been won fairly. Carlton chose to commission the vast majority of its production content from third parties, and rent studio and broadcasting space at LWT's London Studios. Thames Television contacted the government for help to issue a court case and successfully sued Carlton Television for £50.2 million. Since Thames Television won the court case, the ITC had no choice but to have Thames Television regain its franchise from 1993 and come up with a solution, which was having Carlton and Thames merge to create Thames Entertainment. In May 1994, Independent Television Commission criticised a number of ITV station as part of its review for the first 12 months of the new franchise in 1993. Thames was condemned for providing a wide range of "unimpressive and very disappointing" programmes for the ITV network, which were "neither distinctive nor noticeable high quality".6 Thames responded by angrily stating that "In 1993, Thames Television launched 43 brand new series and 20 new single programmes, sustained audience levels and played a full part in ITV network, successes far outweighed failures". A few days later, Thames Television won two awards from the Royal television society programme and tech awards in London; Margie Clarke was named: "Best female presenter" for Thames Television's "Good Sex Guide" while "Old Bear Stories" won the Children's Entertainment award.7 One year after having the 1991 franchise renewal under its belt, during a 1994 review, ITC commented that Thames had made improvements, in its factual and drama output, while its Children's programmes was "Impressive", but more remained to be achieved.8 In 1995, its regional programming was regarded as high quality but with few innovations, The Good Sex Guide was guilty of breaching taste and decency requirements with little educational classifications, which resulted in the company receiving two written warnings from the ITC.9 Once again in 1997 the company was criticised for failing to ensure its programming complied with programmes code, while the number of formal interventions from the ITC had increased from four in 1995 to eight, but its regional programming continued to be of high quality.10 In 1997, the company escaped receiving any criticism from the ITC. Factual inaccuracy in 1996 documentary Thames Television found itself at the centre of a major controversy about truthfulness in broadcast journalism in May 1998, when The Guardian carried a series of articles alleging the wholesale fabrication of a much-garlanded 1996 Thames documentary, The Connection, which had purported to film the route by which heroin was smuggled into the United Kingdom from Colombia. An internal inquiry at Thames Television found that The Guardian's allegations were in large part correct and the then industry regulator, the ITC, punished Thames Television with a record £2-million fine12 for multiple breaches of the UK's broadcasting codes. The scandal led to an impassioned debate about the accuracy of documentary production. Expansion In recent years, changes in rules concerning media ownership enabled Thames' parent company, Pearson, to buy out many of the other ITV stations, including Central Independent Television, Westcountry Television, and part of HTV (via Granada), as well as the rights to the archives of ITC Entertainment and its former sister company ATV, and the Rank film archive. HTV, Westcountry, and Central were not subject to a full rebrand as Thames. Thames also did not acquire most of HTV's production facilities, most of which Granada retained. The ITC archive is financially lucrative since it includes such popular shows as Thunderbirds, Danger Man, The Prisoner, and The Saint, as well as feature films such as The Return of the Pink Panther, On Golden Pond, and Capricorn One. Many Rank Organisation films became part of the Thames Television library. Thames released much of this material on video and DVD via its own label in the UK, and via A & E Home Video, Acorn Media, MGM Home Entertainment, and Lions Gate Home Entertainment in the USA. A large number of these films were shown on Thames Television's digital movie channel, Thames Cinema; however, it closed in 2003. The merger with Granada led to the use of the Thames name falling into disuse, and Thames Video became part of Granada Ventures. ITV Digital In 1997, Pearson formed a partnership with Granada and BSkyB to bid for some of the multiplexes for the new digital terrestrial network. In June it was successful in its application, and began the service, OnDigital, under the condition BSkyB withdrew from the group. Merger and unification In September 2002, RTL (the parent company of Fremantle Media) and Granada, having now acquired all the franchises in England and Wales, made the decision to remove all regional idents, continuity and branding, and replace them with the single brand, ITV1. English regional idents were to only precede regional programming, and regional announcements were pre-recorded from London (Wales gets on-screen recognition prior to all programming). Unlike Granada-owned regions, Thames Television used dual-branding on its regional idents in the South West and the Midlands, using Central and Westcountry logos. Granada-owned franchises preferred simply to place text of the region name under the ITV1 logo. This went on until December 2003, when Thames dropped the practice, resulting in changing the brands from Central to ITV1 for Central England, and from TSW to ITV1 South West. The HTV regions were re-branded ITV1 Wales and ITV1 West of England in 2002. On 2 February 2004, RTL merged with Granada plc, creating ITV plc, which now owns all of the ITV franchises in England and Wales under the ITV1 brand (Wales still uses its own on-screen identity as ITV1 Wales, but now also uses English ITV1 continuity). Two of the four English Thames ITV regions (Thames, Westcountry, HTV West, and Central) were reverted to their previous names: ITV1 for Central England again became ITV1 Central and ITV1 West of England became ITV1 West. ITV1 Westcountry, however, retained its name. Those idents aired prior to regional programming in their respective areas. ITV London Since 28 October 2002, Thames Television (in common with all the other ITV companies, except Scottish Television, Grampian Television and Ulster Television) has been known on air simply as ITV1 (London Weekdays). Unlike London Weekend Television, Thames Television did not note the last day (25/10/02) of its regional identity on-air. However, the Thames brand continued to be seen on production captions until 2004. Since Thames and London Weekend Television now use identical presentation and logos, the division between the London weekday and weekend franchises is now invisible, although the old LWT - now ITV1 (London Weekends) - does have London Weekend Weather, which is sponsored by a different company to that of London Weekdays. With the merger of Thames and Granada, Thames Television and LWT are now run as a single entity (ITV London), with a single management team appointed to both companies. Both continue to have a separate legal existence however, and still have separate licences, although this is now just a formality. Upon merger, Thames Television lost recognition to programmes made by their companies, which became branded as Granada and the relevant area, for example, all programmes made in London became branded as Granada London. From 16 January 2006, all programmes produced by any ITV plc owned region are branded by ITV Studios. Studios from 1990s onwards Thames Television (now ITV London) produces its programmes, including "ITV News London" at its main studios in Teddington, London. In the 1990s, they also had a small office building in St. Martin's Lane in Central London, with transmission being provided by a newly opened playout centre located within LWT's studios in London and managed by London News Network, a joint company between Thames and LWT that also provided a seven-day news service. Thames productions produced in Teddington that require studio space are booked by the independent production company making them, and are therefore used a variety of studio facilities. When Thames bought Central Independent Television in 1994, they acquired the company's Nottingham studios at Lenton Lane and gained an in-house production arm in the process. Following the creation of ITV plc in 2004, Thames Television's office in St. Martin's Lane was vacated and its remaining operations are to this day based in both Teddington and The London Studios, albeit as part of the ITV plc operations housed there. Branding and presentation The first idents to be used comprised a plain screen with the words 'FROM THAMES' written in white in the Helvetica font, and a vignette that resembled the famous ident, containing famous London landmarks. The first ident was used to signify programmes made at Rediffusion's old studios at Adastral House, the latter shows that came from ABC's former Teddington studios.4445 Some programmes recorded at Teddington, such as some episodes of the 1969 series of "Callan" did, however, use the "From Thames" caption, indicating that they may have been edited at Adastral House rather than Teddington. Both of the company's logo's was accompanied by a fanfare called Salute to Thames, composed by Johnny Hawksworth. With the introduction of colour, the ident was remodelled on the vignette, this time using photographs rather than drawings. This ident was designed by agency Minale Tattersfield. It was originally shot by stop-frame animation on 16 mm film, then shot again on 35 mm film in 1976 and finally digitized on computer in 1984.46 All of these animations featured the same design, which consisted of the skyline slowly rolling up from the River Thames along with the logo, which was reflected briefly on the water and then quickly faded to its static position at the centre of the ident. The ident was finally withdrawn in the summer of 1989, when Thames celebrated its 21st anniversary. The revised ident retained the London landmarks but contained them in a blue and orange triangle, pointing downwards, with three wavy blue lines to represent the river and the words 'THAMES XXI' in the orange part of the triangle. it was this logo which was used on the first ITV branding idents in 1989.47 A new ident was launched in 1990, featuring a redesigned triangle logo containing Big Ben, the British Telecom Tower, the dome of St Paul's Cathedral and Tower Bridge. Initially, this ident was used only before local programmes; a modified ITV generic ident featuring this new logo was used for networked shows. However, in 1994, the ITV branded ident was dropped in favour of the local ident which was used at all times from early November 1994. In May 1996, the 1990 ident was finally replaced with a new presentation package. A new Thames ident debuted alongside the package, featuring some London landmarks encased in three boxes with the word "Thames" below. A sans serif typeface was immediately reintroduced. On 8th November 1999, the Thames Television regions, consisting of Thames Television, Central, and Television South West, adopted the 'Hearts' generic look, albeit with their regional identities and logos intact. Category:ITV logos Category:ITV Category:Thames Entertainment Category:Thorn EMI Category:BET